On July 19, 2024, EA Sports College Football 25 was officially released. This title marks the first college football installment EA Sports has released since NCAA 14, which came out in 2013.
College Football 25’s strongest element is easily its visual presentation. With this being an EA title, it’s so refreshing and exciting to witness.
The game is packed with immersion, as it offers unique environments and tradition showcases for over 134 schools. It is genuinely exciting to play in such a wide variety of stadiums and witness the field openers and crowd energy the game offers.
Seeing these elements in effect combined with the quality lighting and visuals the game has is really impressive. Aside from how noticeably less detailed the crowd models look when zoomed in close, CFB 25 overall looks great.
However, presentation can only go so far if gameplay falls short. Thankfully, CFB 25’s core gameplay is generally good, but has a few issues as well.
The game boasts quick, arcade style movement that feels fast and responsive, feeling overall much more explosive and less intricate than Madden does. Passing feels fluid, and the juke/spin animations are concise and very effective.
Quality does take a hit due to faulty blocking logic still remaining apparent even after patches made to the game.
Passing protection and run plays at launch could get crumbled so easily due to poor decision making by the game’s AI, and at times this issue still occurs, breaking up smooth gameplay and exciting sequences.
In terms of modes, CFB 25 has both its ups and downs. Road to Glory at the start feels immersive in how it has the player focus on school, health and branding, but the system soon becomes pretty flat and repetitive with a ton of phone texts.
Additionally, starting as a two or three star prospect can often feel brutal due to lack of playtime and constantly skipping cutscenes when first starting.
This tendency of repetition is also realized after a while when playing Dynasty, but for those who really enjoy recruiting and organizing teams, there is still enjoyment to be found.
Overall, EA Sports College Football 25 is an exciting return to college football with awesome presentation and solid gameplay. While there is certainly room for improvement in AI and specific game modes, this is certainly a good foundation to launch on for the series after such a long absence.
Visuals/Presentation – 4.5/5
Gameplay – 3.5/5
Quality of Modes – 2.5/5
Overall – 3.5/5
